Olympus announces xD Type M+
By
Michael R. Tomkins, The Imaging Resource
(Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 11:11 EST)
Alongside its camera announcements yesterday, Olympus Imaging America Inc. added a new variant of its xD-Picture Card format.
The xD-Picture Card Type M+ is said to offer data transfer speeds that are 1.5 times faster than the regular Type M cards, which had write speeds of approximately 2.5 megabytes per second. That would place the Type M Plus cards somewhere in the region of 4MB/second write speeds, which is roughly the same as the company's Type H cards.

No details have been disclosed relating to planned capacity of North American Type M+ xD cards at this time. Type M and Type H cards have been announced in capacities to a maximum of 2GB. In Japan, the Type M+ announcement lists two initial products - the 2GB xD-Picture Card (M-XD2GMP) and 1GB xD-Picture Card (M-XD1GMP), matching but not increasing the capacity available in the other xD card variants.

At this time, it isn't clear what advantage the Type-M Plus cards will offer over the existing Type H cards, given that the speed and capacity appear to be similar.

"The demand for faster media with higher speed performance is being driven by developments in advanced video-recording functions in digital still cameras," said John D. Blakeslee, business manager, digital memory products, Olympus Imaging America Inc.

The new Type M+ Series will be available in April 2008. It will be compatible with all Olympus digital cameras that use Type M Series xD-Picture Cards, including the new digital compact cameras (Stylus, Stylus SW, FE-Series and Ultra Zoom) announced today.

Olympus Imaging America Inc. works collaboratively with its customers and its ultimate parent company, Olympus Corporation, to develop breakthrough technologies with revolutionary product design and functionality that enhances peoples’ lives every day. These include:

Digital and Film Cameras as well as related Underwater Products and Accessories

Professional Digital SLR Imaging Systems as well as related Underwater Products and Accessories

Digital and Microcassette Recorders

Digital Media

Binoculars

Olympus Imaging America Inc. is responsible for sales in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. For more information, visit: www.olympusamerica.com.

The speeds will differ from camera to camera with shooting modes and shooting conditions. The number is just for reference and not guaranteed. Please visit Olympus’ Web site for further information.